Unhittable!: Baseball's Greatest Pitching Seasons (review)

Mark Twain once observed that there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics." Statistics, as is well known, can be used to prove or disprove anything, depending on which side you are sitting.

For baseball enthusiasts statistics are a major part of their love of the game. In his book Unhittable! Baseball's Greatest Pitching Seasons , Gabriel Schecter presents us with his selection of the twenty-five greatest season pitching accomplishments in chronological order. From Cy Young's best season in 1901 to the 1999 achievements of Pedro Martinez (interesting how Red Sox pitchers bookend the century's choices), Schecter revives fond memories of pitching heroes, winning streaks, strikeouts, and shutouts and rekindles the timeless debate over whether one pitcher's season was in reality greater than another's (for example, was Steve Carlton's 1972 performance better than that of Robin Roberts in 1952, both for the Phillies?).

While the cold stats of wins, ERA, and strikeouts tell a large part of the story of any pitcher's season, other factors have to be taken into consideration when making comparisons. Schecter provides all this and more in this informative and entertaining book.

For each of the twenty-five pitchers, we are presented with the complete statistical picture for the year chosen, including a game-by-game breakdown against each of his opponents, with innings pitched, number of runs and earned runs allowed, strikeouts, and the final score. Other vital statistics presented for the season are the number of runs allowed in each of his wins and in each loss, the team's record in games not pitched by him (what percentage of the wins of his team he accounted for), and what his own team's offense provided in his support.

If you want compare any of these pitchers with their peers, Schecter also supplies a list of the top five pitchers of that year. He also provides a box showing the best five years of each pitcher, so you can judge how that pitcher fared against himself over a longer period of time.

But the book contains more than just statistics and more statistics. For each of the twenty-five pitchers he chose, Schecter also gives us a history of the player and then takes us through the entire season, hitting the highs, lows, and other interesting tidbits that occurred.

Subjectivity is always at the core of selecting any list of "greatest" accomplishments, and Schecter admits his choices were subjective but nonetheless difficult. As he says, his concern was not only what these pitchers accomplished but how they did it and how they were regarded at the time. Nonetheless there is always room for argument as to why some seasons are considered greater than others (compare the records of Jack Chesbro, Joe McGinnity, and Rube Waddell in 1904—surely there could be some discussion here). Only twice does he choose more than one pitcher in a single year because it was too difficult to separate them (Bob Gibson and Denny Mclain in 1968; Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez in 1999). So in fairness, Schecter adds an appendix, titled "The Best of the Rest," in which he briefly discusses another thirty-six pitchers and their great seasons not quite good enough to nudge out any of the elite list.

Because we have entered the era of specialization in pitching, Schecter also provides another appendix, "The Best of the Pen," in which he takes a cursory look at eighteen relief pitchers and their outstanding seasons.

Books like this are always fun to peruse, to thumb through from time to time, to keep handy as a ready reference against each season's greatest accomplishments. This one is definitely a must for baseball fans and a good read during the long, arbitration-filled winter.

A final note: in this the era of baseball...